Hi Priceless,
Yes, me too! This is absolutely a common issue with anxiety, so please don’t feel alone in this situation. Once you’ve experienced how awful anxiety can be, it makes sense that we’d fear feeling it ever again. I’ve been told before that this is how panic attacks often work - we get so scared of having another one that it actually triggers another one.
It makes sense in terms of what is happening in our body when we experience anxiety. It is our evolutionary systems telling us that there is a real, life-threatening danger. In the past this might have meant a tiger was coming, so our body would be triggered to run or fight. But today, our anxiety is very rarely based on anything life-threatening, so it is overreacting. When we feel anxious we look for something that must be triggering it, and when we don’t find anything we might conclude that the thing to be anxious about is our own bodies/mind. The physical signs of anxiety can feel like we’re going to die - our heart pounds, we shake and our breathing becomes shallow. It feels awful, so it makes sense it would make us anxious.
I agree with PamelaR. Is it possible for you to see someone about what you’re experiencing? We often need help to learn to manage our anxiety by teaching us skills and explaining how anxiety works so we can better understand what we’re experiencing. Sometimes just knowing what’s happening can make a big difference in our being able to take a step back from it and lessen the struggle. It sounds like you have some pretty good insight already, but please think about reaching out.
Take care
Alexlisa
